Jan. 31st, 2008

Jan. 31st, 2008

Many thanks to those of you who replied to this post about schedules and routines. If you missed it, I'm still interested. If you'd rather not say in a public post then do e-mail me instead.

The reason I'm interested is that I'm currently in the process of trying to build routines that work well for me. I have a lot of things that really ought to be done every day, a lot of conflicting interests and side-projects I'd like to spend more time on, rather variable abilities due to physical and mental health issues (yes, keeping better routines will eventually help the variation in abilities to go down some, but that's a chicken-egg problem), and a variable academic schedule that can see me required at rehearsal anytime from 09.30 to 22.00 at relatively short notice.

So, I'm unlikely to get my 'ideal' in, at least not until my mental and physical fitness improve a lot or my academic commitments change.

I struggle, when I don't do everything I'd like to, to get anything done at all. This is not good.

I need to sort out an absolute baseline - if I'm having a bad pain day or a bad brain day or things have been busier than normal, there are things I still must do, things that are absolutely not negotiable. For weekdays, these are:-eat at least 3 meals that include protein and vegetables-take meds-do at least 15 minutes of physio-if it's winter, do at least 30 minutes of lightbox-practise for at least an hour-attend all classes/rehearsals/appointments from Trinty, Aikido, teaching and medical stuff-brush teeth and hair at least once (washing face and braiding hair can suffer if I'm that rushed)-spend at least 30 minutes on WeeklyStuff as described in previous list.

Perhaps if I start with that as baseline, and view everything else as a desirable bonus, it will be easier.

A major difficulty for me at the moment: I can't really afford to be buying ready-made food, I often don't have the time to cook properly, and I have very little in the way of freezer space for pre-made things. If I have an extended busy period then healthy and quick things like fresh fruit and veg just go off unless I buy them every few days which becomes problematic in terms of the time it takes, and it becomes even more important that what I do eat (pre-made) is good for me. For a while cold tins of beans filled an important gap here (could keep some in my locker at Trinity, they have protein and fibre if rather more sugar than I'd like) but I over-relied on them and have gone off tinned beans entirely now. I'd love to do something like once-a-month cooking but I'd need a deep freeze, and where exactly am I going to put one of those?